Recent content by ampete1

Flaked oats do not need to be mashed. Steeping the flaked oats will be enough.

I used the Wyeast Belgian Witbear #3944.

I have been fermenting a wit for 7 days now. The initial few days went well, good vigorous activity, but the krausen still has not dropped. Normally after 3-4 days of vigourous activity the beer begins to clear, do I have a problem? Could it still be fermenting. The OG was 1.044, haven't...

I am looking to build a kegerator using a chest freezer. I want to be able to have two beers on tap with room to store an additional keg or two or a carboy. Are there any suggestions of a particular freezer that works better then others i.e. brand, size, etc.? How about temperature...

I made a red ale using 8 lbs of 2 row pale malt, .5 lbs Weyermann Caramunich II, .25 lbs Weyermann Caramel Wheat, .25 ibs Weyermann Chocolate Rye (it's basically the Dawson's Multigrain all grain kit from Northern Brewer) for a 5 gallon batch. The starter was made with 2 cups of water and .5...

I just brewed my first all grain batch on Thursday. I did a single infusion mash with a batch sparge. During the initial phase of the mash I had the temperature higher then I wanted (>160 degrees for about 10-15 minutes), then only got the mash down to around 158-160 for about 50-55 minutes...

I just built a mash tun using a 10 gallon rubbermaid beverage cooler. After installing the statinless steel spigot, I couldn't get it to stop leaking. I added plumber's putty on the outside of the cooler and can't see any pushing through to the inside. The plumber's putty did the trick, but...

Thanks for all the replies, I was hoping it was just a matter of waiting. The recipe I was following said to wait after bottling for 10-14 days, but obviously that is incorrect.

I recently brewed a pumpkin ale, that fermented great, started with an OG around 1.054 and finished at 1.012. I bottled with 3/4 cup of corn sugar and let sit for 10 days. I put four bottles in the fridge at 10 days to try and all four bottles had low to no carbonation. Could this be because...

Thanks for the information.

Does anyone know of a good homebrew store near Arlington Heights, IL? I'm looking to brew a Pumpkin Ale, kind of last minute decission, and will need to buy all my grains, extract, hops, etc. at the store.

It is an alcohol extract. Thanks for the reply.

I will be bottling a porter soon that I am going to add a couple of teaspoons of almond extract to at bottling. Should I boil the extract with the priming sugar to ensure it is sanitary or can I just dump it directly into my bottling bucket at the time of bottling?

Is there a difference between rolled oats and flaked oats? If a recipe calls for 1 pound of rolled oats is the equivalent needed for flaked oats as a substitute?

Thanks for the posts. Does the oil in the vanilla bean affect head retention?